TCL which is the Parent company of Alcatel announced the XESS tablet earlier this year. Launched at $500, it had some nifty little features and was liked by many. But now the company has made it even better by updating it with much-needed features which should have been there in the first iteration itself. Nonetheless, it is good to see these new exciting feature after all and it looks like the addition of these new features will be liked by many. There aren’t too many changes here from the last one, but still the few added features makes it that much better.

First of all, this TCL XESS tablet comes with a massive 17.” display on the front. This by itself would have made you realize that it is a home-oriented device and will not be feasible to be used by a single person for any personal use just you would with some other tablets. Well, talking about the specs of this tablet, it comes with an octa-core ARM CPU clocked at 1.5GHz. It also packs 3GB of RAM along with 64GB of internal storage as well. It weighs 6 pounds and as mentioned, this not like you day-to-day tablet. Also, do make a note that the 17.3″ display is a 1080p panel.

It only runs Android 5.1 Lollipop out of the box with a custom TCL home oriented UI on top. Considering the fact that it is more like a smart hub for your home, it is quite behind in the software department. Talking about the smart hub feature, it comes with a bunch of tricks that can be used to control your smart home. First of all, just like the last year’s model, it comes with a network camera that you can set up in your home. The same can be used to monitor your kids or maybe keep an eye on that locker when you are not at home.

Apart from the pre-loaded kitchen recipe application, the most appealing factor of the tablet is that it comes with Amazon Alexa integration out of the box. What this means is, your tablet can control pretty much anything and everything that your Amazon Echo can. This includes controlling your smart home devices, like change temperature using the thermostat, smart control lights, etc. You can ask it to play some music from your library or even ask any questions like weather, etc.

The tablet also comes with a bunch of gestures as well which were showcased by the company last year while unveiling. But as of now, not much info is available about the different gestures that you can use here. Well, if you can live without them, then you are getting quite an interesting package here. Having a family oriented tablet like this along with the Amazon’s AI voice assistant is definitely something that you want. Or you can also go for the Yumi Robot which also has the potential to impress you. With that being said, if you are interested in buying one, then you can do so starting today as it goes on sale on Amazon for $499 in the US. Stay tuned for more info on this.